Whether you’re staying at a resort or in a guesthouse, here’s your guide
If your trip to the Maldives takes place around Halloween, you may be wondering if there will be any kind of spooky celebrations in the Maldives. In this article, we try to explain what Halloween in the Maldives is actually like.
Without meaning to state the obvious, the Maldives is a Muslim country, so Halloween isn’t really much of a thing for most Maldivians. Some Maldivians who’ve lived overseas (or saw Halloween parties on TV and thought it looked fun) sometimes throw private house parties for it. But most Maldivians don’t get into it, not least because they’re not supposed to observe any holidays that aren’t Maldivian or Muslim.
However, as a tourist, whether you’ll be able to celebrate Halloween in the Maldives or not depends on where you’re staying. Halloween is widely celebrated at most (but not all) resorts in the Maldives and only some guesthouses. As a general rule, most major international holidays and festivals are marked at most resorts, including Halloween, Christmas, Orthodox Christmas, Holi, and Diwali. Some resorts occasionally even celebrate Thanksgiving, too, since the US represents a small but growing market. However, the situation is different at guesthouses (read on to find out more).
Halloween at resorts in the Maldives
If you’re going to be staying at a Maldives resort over Halloween, it’s worth checking just in case your resort is one of the few resorts that isn’t doing anything, to avoid any disappointment. The majority of any Halloween activities at resorts in the Maldives are aimed at families. So, if you’re travelling as a couple or in a group of friends and normally enjoy celebrating Halloween, you might find it more difficult to find some Halloween fun in the Maldives. However, it’s not impossible.
You won’t be able to take your child trick-or-treating because resort islands are totally separate from the Maldivian community, which doesn’t celebrate Halloween anyway. So, forget about the part where you go door to door collecting treats. However, most resorts plan some kind of Halloween activities – particularly resorts that have a kids’ club. They normally include things like crafting spooky decorations, face-painting, costumes, scary stories, and maybe making some Halloween treats. And for adults, there can be themed Halloween cocktails and parties.
For example, this year, the kids’ club at Kuramathi Maldives in Rasdhoo Atoll is holding a week of Halloween activities, from October 27th to Noveber 1st. They include crafting pasta skeletons, a Monster Dance-Off, Zombie Limbo, a trick-or-treat parade and even a Monster Pool Party.
The Ritz-Carlton Maldives has blended some Halloween traditions into its Autumn Festival. On October 31st, kids aged four to 12 can join the Flying Fox Quest, a Halloween-inspired nature walk in search of fruit bats, prizes, and fascinating facts. There will also be Halloween decoration-making and Creative Pumpkin Expression workshops. Tweens and teens will enjoy the Island Treasure Quest at twilight – a Trick or Treat Treasure Hunt across the island. It’s followed by a festive Halloween Feast at La Locanda Italian restaurant, where seasonal dishes and sweet surprises will be served in an atmospheric setting.
Kuda Villingili Resort Maldives in Male’ Atoll is holding a family-friendly ‘Spooky Tropical Halloween‘. It begins with haunted cocktails at sunset on October 28th followed by a Halloween buffet dinner and disco. The kids’ club is running all kinds of Halloween-themed activities including a Spooky Story Circle, a Sea Monster Treasure Hunt and costume-making.
Canareef Resort Maldives in Addu Atoll is going all-out for families this Halloween. On October 31st there’ll be shipwrecks, ghost pirates and glowing coconut trees, a Halloween buffet with Halloween-themed food, and a dance party on the beach from 9pm until 1am.
Oaga Art Resort in Male’ Atoll is blending Halloween with Maldivian folklore to create a genuinely spooky-sounding storytelling, drumming and dining event. It blends Halloween traditions with the local superstitions about Santhi Mariyambu, a female demon who plucks teeth from the living, rewarding the virtuous with gold and silver teeth and punishing those who have misbehaved by making teeth appear all over their faces. This sinister Tooth Fairy variant, The Grim Toothkeeper, might be more fun for tweens and teens to ‘encounter’ rather than toddlers – check out their spooky video.
Speaking of spine-tingling stuff, staff at Jawakara Islands Maldives in Lhaviyani Atoll are preparing to get into the spirit of Halloween again with some scary costumes that could give the littlest guests quite a fright! This year, the chefs are creating some ghoulish fare, props are being put up around the island and there will be themed cocktails, dinners and activities for children.
Halloween at guesthouses in the Maldives
If you’re spending your holiday at a guesthouse (which means you’ll be located in a Maldivian city, town or village known as a ‘local island’ or ‘inhabited island’), people aren’t officially permitted to celebrate any holidays other than Maldivian or Muslim ones. So, you’re unlikely to find any Halloween activities at most guesthouses in the Maldives. The same goes for any other non-Muslim celebrations.
Probably one of the only exceptions to the rule is Maafushi, an inhabited island in South Male’ Atoll. Maafushi has more guesthouses on it than any other island in the Maldives, and slightly more of a permissive attitude towards foreigners and foreign customs than some islands. As you can imagine, many island communities struggle to strike a balance between preserving their culture and trying to meet the expectations of travellers. So, a few guesthouses and hotels in Maafushi sometimes have a Halloween-themed dinner buffet and party. As with my advice regarding resorts, if celebrating Halloween in the Maldives is important to you, it’s best to check with your host.
The alternative is asking the guesthouse if they offer a day pass to a resort nearby that might be celebrating Halloween. Many guesthouses have partnerships with resorts so their guests can get a taste of resort life for a day or enjoy some alcoholic drinks. That’s because alcohol is not permitted on inhabited islands, except a few islands such as Maafushi, which have a boat with an alcohol licence permanently moored adjacent to it, for use only by travellers.
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